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| July 2010 Issue |
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‘We Have Shown an Interest in Buying 65 LCHs, but the Final Order Would Depend Upon Whether HAL is Able to Keep its Present Timeline’
Vice Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal P.K. Barbora PVSM, VM, ADC |
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LCH’s Debut
Very few countries in the world have the capability to produce a platform of this nature. Hence, when Light Combat Aircraft (LCH) took off, my first sentiment was of extreme pride. I was very proud of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and the Defence Research and Development Organisation. LCH is a gradual progression of the capabilities achieved with the production of Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), which, as we all know, took a long time to fructify. LCH takes the manoeuvrability of the ALH to another level; even when ALH is a highly manoeuvrable helicopter as its Sarang aerobatic team has proved. In several respects, LCH is an offshoot of ALH, with greater manoeuvrability and the capacity to carry weapons. And like any other offshoot, sure it has inherited some of the problems of the ALH, which had and still has a few issues that need to be resolved. I am sure HAL would be working on this and will make the design changes that would be needed to resolve these issues. All in all, one major step has been taken, but it is a long journey ahead. I reckon, if all goes well then HAL should be ready for the IOC and the FOC in two to three years time.
IAF’s Interest
We have shown an interest in buying 65 LCHs. But the final order would depend upon whether HAL is able to keep its present timeline. As I said, there is a long way to go and hence there is no point in placing any orders at the moment. We will do so once we feel that the helicopter meets our Staff Requirements. Earlier LCH was overweight by about 600kg, but by the time of the first prototype flight, they had managed to reduce the weight by about 300kg by substituting metal with composites wherever |
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possible. They still have to reduce the weight. I don’t know how it will be done, but it has to be done, perhaps by miniaturising whatever is possible. After all, it is a combat helicopter and it has to be able to perform with the full weapon load. We would like to carry rockets, missiles, guns and bombs on it. I am keen that we buy LCH, after all then we will be spending in rupees and not dollars. But if it does not meet our requirements in the time that we want, we may have to go for something else in the interim. Take the example of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). The IAF waited a certain period for the fighter to become operational but when it did not, we had to go for other aircraft to fill our operational voids. I don’t believe that LCH will go the LCA way because LCA is a very complex machine and testing of each parameter takes time. Now that the EADS has been collaborating on testing of the LCA, I am sure that the fighter will become operational soon. But coming back to the LCH, the first flight has shown a lot of promise. Even if it comes 85-90 per cent closer to what we desire, it should be acceptable to us. The IAF is looking at LCH as a mother platform, from which other and better platforms would emerge. This is the reason we are supporting the project.
Roles of LCH
We will employ LCH to not only deliver weapons but also take care of the threat from the air. We would also operate in the high altitude areas in support of the army. For that it has to be able to maintain a power to weight ratio.
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